cdu likelyup soon in senate inquiry into asic, page-11

There is action a plenty Max……
but will the ASX act as well?????…could affect big business…their (ASX's) profits….so they will have to be dragged screaming no doubt by " The Senate"….imho

In Bloomberg today:

High-Frequency Traders Get Curbs as EU Reins In Flash Boys
By Jim Brunsden Apr 14, 2014 5:18 PM ET

European Union lawmakers are poised to approve some of the toughest restrictions in the world on high-frequency trading, the first crackdown in the aftermath of Michael Lewis’s latest book, “Flash Boys.”

The curbs are part of revamped EU markets legislation spanning from commodity derivative speculation to investor protection. The high-frequency trading limits include standards meant to keep the price increment for securities from being too small, mandatory tests of trading algorithms and requirements that market makers provide liquidity for a set number of hours each day.

“With these rules the EU is putting in place one of the strictest set of regulations for high-frequency trading in the world,” EU financial services chief Michel Barnier said in an e-mail. “While HFT trading might bring some benefits, we need to make sure that it doesn’t cause instability, and isn’t a source of market abuse. That’s what these rules set out to achieve.”

High-frequency trading in stocks grabbed the headlines after the plunge known as the flash crash in May 2010, during which the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly lost almost 1,000 points. Controversy returned with the publication of Lewis’s book on March 31. Lewis argues that the $22 trillion U.S. stock market is rigged in favor of speed traders, who he says prey on slower investors by getting faster access to information.

Regulatory Response

Members of the European Parliament will vote tomorrow on EU rules that also include a requirement for traders to have their algorithms tested on venues and authorized by regulators. The assembly in Strasbourg, France, is set to endorse a tentative deal reached with governments on the measures earlier this year.

The draft rules, which predate Lewis’s book, are “the most comprehensive regulatory response yet to HFT,” Christopher Bernard, financial regulation lawyer at Linklaters LLP in London, said in an e-mail.

High-frequency trading involves using powerful technology and computer programs to execute orders in thousandths or even millionths of a second, profiting from fleeting discrepancies in security prices across different trading venues.

The curbs “strike a decent balance,” the FIA European Principal Traders Association, a group that represents high-frequency traders, said in January when a political accord on the law was reached.

More Sweeping

The group had warned that more sweeping measures initially demanded by the parliament would lead to higher transaction costs and boost market volatility.

“Mifid has a strong focus on creating transparency in the markets, which electronic trading helps to create,” Mark Spanbroek, vice chair of FIA EPTA said in an April 13 e-mail.

“Automated trading is the most transparent form of trading available, as every single action is recorded electronically,” he said. “Our records mean that regulators can police the market better than they ever have before, which can be harder to do in some other forms of trading.”

The Mifid law will also link overseas-based firms’ market access to whether they are subject to regulations as tough as the EU’s from their home regulator…….."

So ASX & ASIC what do YOU intend to do ??????? Sitting on your hands is good….no…wait on…thats what we have already been doing….lol…and are really good at….imho